The only true pro-lifers are the Amish

This about a person who was my friend, who is a Catholic, and who would be OK with it if, under certain circumstances, her son took a gun and blew my daughter's head off.

There was a woman I met in the park when our sons were little. We had a lot in common, including having graduated from the same university, and our sons even had the same name. We hung out with each other with our kids and our husbands, and we both had a daughter next.

She is a Catholic. She is pro-(fetal)life. I am a Protestant, raised pacifist. I am pro-choice, no longer a pacifist but more of a just war theorist - a moral war can be waged in certain very limited circumstances. None of which I have seen I my lifetime.

Many years later, now that our sons are older, and their family has moved away, it occurs to me that I am raising my son to believe that there are no circumstances under which it would be OK for him to take a gun and blow her daughter's head off. She is raising her son to believe that under a number of circumstances it would be OK, evan a great and good thing, for her son to take a gun and blow my daughters head off. (Circumstances such as: she is an enemy solder, she is in the way of her son trying to get to an enemy solder, she is target practice as he is training to shoot enemy soldiers, etc., etc.) That family had a lot of war toys for their boy, they talked a lot about war and how necessary it was, and they were quite knowledgable about all the cool weapons that are used in a war.

They love war and killing, but reasonable people disagree on the circumstances under which is it morally permissible to take human life, and they are just more into killing than I am. They think there are quite a few circumstances under which it is OK to kill, whereas I think the circumstances are extremely limited. But I don't go around blathering that I’m "pro-life", like they do. Remember: the only true "pro-lifers" are the Amish, who are against abortion, the death penalty, and all wars. No one else has the right to say they are pro-life with a straight face unless they believe as the Amish do.

When I think how the person who was my friend says she is "pro-life" I know that this is a disgusting, filthy and vile lie, There is something about a family that teaches their son that it is OK, a duty, (and fun!) to kill, then calling themselves "pro-life"… Something about them… something… hypocritical….now what's the word I'm looking for? Evil.